Monthly Archives: February 2017

Healthy Eats

As I promised in my latest Facebook post, I was going to make poke at home. Poke (pronounced as po-kay)is a raw fish salad in Hawaiian cuisine. I remember having this  10plus years ago in Honolulu. I was not a big fan of raw fish then. I was also 20 pounds lighter and can don a swimsuit without fear, so safe to say, a lot of things  have changed since then. I love sashimi, so the thought of mixing it with great fruits and veggies plus a savory sauce makes it very enticing.

We went to North Shore Poke Company. This is a restaurant which started at Huntington Beach and they now have branches in Cerritos, Costa Mesa, and most recently, H-town!

An order of poke would first have a base of rice or veggies. You will then pick a choice of raw fish  (salmon or ahi tuna) or octopus. Extras would comprise of mango, avocado, masago, crab, crispy garlic, ginger ,sweet onion. This would all be topped by a savory sauce. There’s a variety of sauces to choose from, depending on the restaurant.

My bowl – brown rice, salmon,mango, masago, blue crab, sweet onion and Ponzu sauce
D’s bowl- brown rice, ahi tuna, pickled ginger, masago, Wasabi Shoyu Sauce

I knew I had to have more of this so I vowed to make some at home for dinner. And also for Beans who was still asleep when we left. We stopped by at Nippon Daido grocery to pick up some sashimi grade salmon and pink snapper. This is my version:

Base is wild rice and some lettuce. Fish is a mix of salmon and pink snapper. I added mangoes and avocado. For the sauce i mixed ponzu and sesame oil. Ah-mazing!

This has really been a wonderful day, food-wise and weather-wise. We ate this outdoors where we recently just cut the grass. I love the smell of freshly-cut grass. It smells so clean. For dessert, we had the cream puff pastry I picked up from the Japanese grocery store. Since the North Shore didn’t serve alcohol, we thought we’d just drink at home. It’s a weekend and it’s past 5 and the weather is awesome, it would be a crime not to…

 

 

Bateaux Mouches – Dinner Cruise in River Seine

If I had to choose only one dining cruise in my lifetime, I would definitely choose this cruise. A close second would be the one in San Francisco Bay, but the food is not nearly as good as this one in Paris, although the scenery is gorgeous as well.

We took this a couple of years back. D and I wanted to do a spring get-away to France and I’ve visited it often enough to know that as lovely as that country is, if not for Disney, there really is nothing much to do for the kids. Luckily, my sister was spending her break in her house in South Padre and didn’t mind if I left Beans with her. I don’t tell her often enough, but I’ve always appreciated her generosity and support for my travel adventures.

We booked our tour here and picked the prestige dinner cruise. It promised a romantic dinner and entertainment.
I love how the French are so upfront in their dress code. They enforce a formal dress code and will have no qualms to turn anyone away wearing jeans. I actually saw it happen.
And because this is France, wine was served as soon as we got seated. This is just in pre-departure area. Great start!
This is the interior of the cruise boat. It starts at pre-twilight. It’s timed perfectly so that you get to take in the sights both in daylight and at night with all the twinkling grandeur.Paris is, after all, the City of Lights.
In the boat, they wasted no time to open our first bottle of bubbly–Petit Chablis, La Chablisienne
Salut! The French really know how to start a celebration. No, I am not pregnant. It’s how the dress is cut. I have thrown it away.
Live music started as we enjoyed our drink. Music selection was classical- very appropriate for the setting
Appetizer – Duck foie gras and Smoked and cured duck breast, salad of winter vegetables.
Also served with our second bottle of wine, this time, a red.
My entree– Filet of veal, parsnip puree, seasoned gravy
D’s entree-Smoked salmon, Swedish flatbread (tunnbröd), sour cream and chives
Another bottle for dessert. Desserts were Homemade chocolate lava cake, thick custard cream and Coffee mousse dome

After all the food, we ventured out as it was already twilight.

The views at this time of the day is amazing. This is taken by my trusty iPhone, unedited
The City of Lights behind me
Beautiful pic to end the magical night.

This is where we disembarked from the boat. Nothing beat being welcomed back in land with the Eiffel Tower all lit up. It took us forever to get  a cab back to the hotel. This was pre-Uber era, although I doubt if Uber would have made a difference. This city is so crowded. We were walking for almost an hour trying to find a cab, which was good because we had a few thousand calories to burn. But for my high heels? Not so much….My advise for foodies on adventure tours? Loose clothes, comfy shoes and whole lot of appetite. Paris is delicious!